Why do Americans have so much stuff? And how much is too much? At what point do the toys and objects that fill middle-class homes become overwhelming to the people who live in them? In the first episode of this three-part series, three UCLA social scientists present a stunning, visual ethnography that reveals the material culture of dual-income, child-centered households featured in their new book, "Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. " A Cluttered Life website: http://www.uctv.tv/clutter Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn9gUqW6huXVtpoO2CgevGimk2dLIkKM8 UCTV Prime: http:/www.uctv.tv/prime Series: "A Cluttered Life: Middle-Class Abundance" [Humanities] [Show ID: 24699]

Comments

1. Excellent information ! 👍💪💖
2. Guilty. But this is exactly why I'm moving towards a simpler, less "stuff" oriented life.
3. This is a large part of why Americans have no savings and China has improve the life of 250 million of their citizens, completely modernize their arm forces and still have US$ 3 trillion in their reserve since the late 1970's to now. We had to create a new industry called public storage.
4. 5 second rule following the question...."do I NEED this and if I do....what do I need it for?"
   <----yes my house is cluttered but it's getting better everyday!
5. Consumerism is like a disease.
6. Why is it that the responsible of cleaning up is only stressful for mothers, but not for fathers? And why is this professor indicating that it would only be the mother's responsibility??? How old is this clip?
7. I so relate to feeling the stress, the cortisol. Good video. I am making those hard, sentimentally reduced discarding of stuff, am stuck on photographs, sharing them with others.
8. Try Konmari to declutter.
9. this isn't consumerism. It's being a slob
10. I wish clever people like this would put their minds to useful things, that better the world/country as a whole. Not trivial meaningless junk like this, we need to organise our thinkers.
11. Why MIDDLE CLASS? Upper class folks have tons more shit. I need to know.
12. Before our son was born my husband and I passed a backhoe with a 'For Sale $1,000.00' sign on it -- I said, if only we could afford that, we'd never have to buy him anything else. That was 35 years ago and I still think so. Now the son, who has sons, wishes he could hand down a backhoe and clear out the toy clutter...
13. i never understood the point of collections or the inability to toss old things. I get some have a mental illness, but, I personally can't have extra anything. I don't save anything for "just incase I need it later". if it doesn't have a home it can go in the trash or donation bin.
14. I'm watching this and looking around my house thinking "thank god I'm not a hoarder" I'm overwhelmed just watching this video OMG
15. full of junk
16. Why do americans try to put a 'class' on a trash house. Makes no difference a dirty house is a dirty house No Matter your 'class'. I equate dirt and clutter low class, and so does the health inspector and child services. That title is pretentious . A pig in a dress is still just a pig!
17. When I think back 30 years ago,how much money I could have in the bank today if we had not got so much crab!I have very little, downsized about13 years ago and I am doing so much better,plus I saved a lot of money not buying all this crap!
18. Super interesting. Wait to they try and get rid of it all !
19. a Scholar,, pause pause pause,,, just pause because,, pause pause pause,, they have a ,,, pause,, preten----cious style of speech,,, pause X 3,, is Not really,, pause THAT impressive.
20. Affluenza is a real modern western society phenomenon, too bad it is spreading to other nations.